Microsoft-Novell antitrust case ends in hung jury

After a two-month trial, Novell's $1.3 billion antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft ended on Friday in a hung jury, according to a spokesman for Microsoft who was at the court. "It is confirmed that the jury could not come to an accord and that no length of further deliberation would alter that," said the spokesman, who is with one of Microsoft's public relations agencies.

The jury had been deliberating for almost three days after closing arguments were presented earlier this week. Microsoft and the Attachmate Group, which is the parent company of Novell, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The jury had asked for clarification on several points during deliberations, including questions about the definition of "middleware." The terminology apparently caused some confusion. At one point, the jury asked whether Windows 95 was considered "an operating system or middleware," court filings show. Read more...